Monday, June 16, 2008

I was just flipping through the posts that accumulated in my blog reader over the weekend, and something over at Resto4Life stopped me dead in my tracks.

The next expansion is due out (by most accounts) some time within the next six months. That's not very far away at all. And the reminder served to make me completely stop and think about what I'm doing with my character right now, more specifically with my gear. Because to me, part of raiding, apart from beating down insanely large bosses, is doing the gear upgrade thing. There is always better gear available as you progress, and part of the fun is picking up some new shiny purple and adding it to the collection. There is also badge gear, which is supposed to be equivalent to T6 in its shininess. I have a couple of pieces of badge gear, and have been slowly saving up for one more, the epic chicken on a stick that is the Crossbow of Relentless Strikes. It costs 150 badges, and I was down to none in the not-so-distant past. I currently have 64, I think. So I've still got a ways to go before I can get myself that crossbow. It's something I have taken for granted, that now that I have the chest piece and a lovely ring, I'd be saving up for that ugly piece of work, because it is a pretty big upgrade, and will have an instant effect on my DPS.

Suddenly, thinking about the expansion coming up, I start to wonder if I want to get it. It will take me the better part of a month and then some to collect enough badges for it anyway, and the advent of the expansion will be that much closer, bringing with it more upgrades, and the likely tragedy of having to part with my hard-won purples for blue or even green gear on the trek to level 80. And once I'm there, beginning the raiding cycle all over again to achieve full purple shininess. Until another expansion is announced, and.. yeah. You get the point. Sigh.

I suppose I'll just have to wait and see what sorts of things will be available in the expansion, and judge for myself whether I'll be able to hang onto that crossbow long enough to make it worth the two months of Kara runs, rather than continuing to save my badges for an even bigger upgrade once the expansion hits. My brain hurts.